Stop the World
by Gigi the Ragdoll
Summary: Poor Cornelius Robinson; even nineteen year old geniuses have their share of faults. Still, it shouldn't be this hard to simply talk to one girl, should it? Based on a song/video and contains copious amounts of pointless Disney fluff.
1. Chapter 1

Plot:

Poor Cornelius, what would you do when you know the future but not how to place the pieces in order? More importantly what do you do when a critical piece dances just out of reach. Rich and Fluffy Disney filled goodness with extra fluff on the side.

Authors Note:

Ok, I don't usually do music fictions, (ok, I_ never _do song-fics,) but this was just so cute, and after working my ass off on the dark new zutara series, I just needed something fun and uplifting to piddle around with and low and behold, here it is, just a simple doodle in words. Well...it was intended to be a simple doodle in words. I think once you pass the 8,000 word mark however it's hard to justify calling it 'simple.' (a one shot in three chapters, imagine that)

But first, a few disclaimers. I, as you might well suspect, own nothing. All characters, locations, and events referenced in this work are all property of both the original artist and author William Joyce as well as Walt Disney Studio. Also, as I always do, I would like to apologies for any grievances one might have towards my spelling and grammar. I'm dyslexic, I do what I can, but I can guarantee in a story this long, there are going to be mistakes I don't catch and words I can't spell.

Finally, I feel an additional apology is in order for this particular work. To any true physicists, science buffs, or other intellectually inclined reader who finds flaw in my 'scientific reasoning'…I do apologies. I just starting making up physics as I go so, please bear with me on it. I'm an artist, not a genius.

Inspired by Artificus' MTR video to Dr. Horrible Sing Along. (find it on youtube, its well worth it!)

Song: Laundry day (Freeze Ray)

Please enjoy…

* * *

**Stop the World**

_Laundry day, see you there  
Under-things tumbling.  
Want to say 'love your hair',  
Here I go…  
Mumbling._

_With my freeze ray I will stop… the world.  
With my freeze ray I will find the time,  
to find the words to…_

Cornelius Robinson let out a muffled yelp from behind his welding mask as the business end of his industrial soldering gun danced dangerously close to his opposite hand. Dropping the tool on impulse he staggered back, cursing all the while. Ripping off the mask and glove from his injured hand he stuck the burned digit in his mouth in a half hearted attempt to sooth the pain. Nineteen years old and he was making mistakes like an amateur in shop class. Grumbling, Cornelius through the welders mask on the floor before he stormed over to his desk. Pulling the center most drawer open he unceremoniously rummaged through in search of the first aid kit. It was the third time he had pulled the small tin box out that day.

In a matter of seconds he had the burn disinfected, wrapped, and was simply staring at his handy work with a stale glare. _Well_…he thought bitterly, examining the finger from all angles. _Now I have one to match the cut on my elbow and the bump on my forehead_. _How pathetic._  
for what had to be the hundredth time that afternoon he let his gaze wonder from his finger to the small self made digital clock that rested at the edge of the desk. It wasn't exactly the most beautiful looking of digital alarms, but it was just too hard to find a good clock that could keep time to within an accurate attosecond. After months of fruitless searching he had finally given up and built one of his own out of frustration.

It read (for all intents and purposes) 6:40.

Throwing himself back in the chair Cornelius sighed before pushing his glasses up, rubbing the bridge of his nose with the forefinger and thumb of his good hand. He could not focus, could not even keep his mind on the project at hand, it was infuriating…and all because of his stupid mouth…

"Cornelius?"

"Over here Mom…"

Replacing his glasses once more the teen inventor spun about in his chair in time to see Lucille Robinson poke her head around the armature of what he hoped would one day be a miniature hydron-collider.  
"Cornelius, honey? Are you alright? I heard yelling."

Despite his foul mood Cornelius could not help but crack a smile at his mothers worried hovering. It didn't matter if he stubbed his toe or severed a limb, his mother was always there with a sweet word and all the attention he would ever need. It was as though she had a sixth sense when it came to his health. "I'm fine mom, promise," he soothed, showing off his bandaged left hand. "…just got a little cocky with the soldering gun."

"Oh…well, alright then, but you be careful. I was just going to run a few errands, do you need anything?"

"No, I think I'm all set. I'm just about finished recalibrating the ion beam, and once I enlarge the radial target trajectory and adjustment the time sequence I should have the ray ready for the symposium in a matter of days."

"Oh how exciting!" Lucille applauded in her rapid, almost child like way as she hovered over him, examining the numerous large blueprints laid out upon his work space. The one nice thing about having parents versed in science and theoretical mathematics was he never had to stop and explain anything like he did for everyone else, the facts were always enough.

Brushing a few pencil shavings off a diagram of his latest invention Lucille glanced back to her son beaming with pride. "You know your father has been calling just about every hour on the hour to ask me if you've fired the freeze ray up yet. He's convinced the mathematics are tight this time."

Cornelius chuckled, though he could not suppress the pang of guilt that played along side his pride in Buds continued interest. After all the notion of the freeze ray was really his fathers idea, beginning with a series of mathematical computations he had jotted down in the margins of an anthology of Max Planck's early essays on quantum physics. Cornelius had stumbled upon it in one of his late night reading sessions, the messy scribbled sequence of numbers, letters, and Greek symbols wedged neatly next to a paragraph on blackbody radiation. He had read over it, thought over it, obsessed over it, re-produced it, recalibrated it, obsessed some more over it, and by dawn had presented to his father a tentative hypothesis for a working ionized freeze ray. Bud had all but fallen over in his shock and excitement.  
For the past four months the two had been inseparable as they had fought, struggled and bled over a walls worth of chalkboards littered with calculations, trying to bring the world of theory into a world of practicalities. It was almost painful to pull themselves away when called upon by work, social obligations, or even basic human needs. More then once Lucille had been forced to drag the pair of them out by their ears to keep them from neglecting their respective choirs, (And more then once they had returned to find a few new corrections and suggestions written in on the board in her perfect block-letter script).

Now the math was all but perfect, the device all but finished, and Bud had been called away to lecture in Germany on the practical implications of fractal geometry, much to the chagrin of both father and son. Somehow it just didn't feel right to be finishing such an epic breakthrough without his father there to share in the excitement of it all. In all honesty Cornelius probably wouldn't even be working on the thing now if he had not been required by the _Scientific Board_ of Research to present a working model by weeks end.

His mother must have read something of his inner turmoil on his face for her hand was suddenly on his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. "You know he's very proud of you Cornelius," her voice and smile warm and soft. "Just keep moving forward."

Snorting, Cornelius favored his mother with a sarcastic lopsided grin for throwing his own words back at him. But of coarse, she was right; there was nothing else for it.

"Thanks mom."

He crinkled his nose in mock irritation as she placed a quick kiss on her sons' temple before making a b-line to the lab door. "Oh, and Cornelius?"

"Yha?"

"I'm expecting a few more packages from InventCo with those _new_ graduated cylinders." She stressed the one word as though for emphasis and Cornelius could not help but notice. He visibly cringed. "If you're still here would you mind signing for it when they come to drop it off? They said it would be sometime around seven."

Cornelius tried a sheepish smile, remembering the reason why his mother no longer had any graduated cylinders in the first place, (though in his defense, it's not as though anyone could have predicted his condensed acid compound would eat through that much glass that quickly.)

"Sure thing Mom."

There was another flurry of kisses and goodbyes before Lucille did in fact depart, leaving the room feeling a bit hollow after such an extravagant display of energy his mother always seemed to exhume. Shaking his head Cornelius risked another glance at the bizarre little digital clock.

6:43

Slowly, inevitably, his eyes roamed over the rest of the desk, moving from the strange digital device to look about the other odds and ends that decorated his work space. His blue prints and pages of mathematics, letter postmarked from around the world from other scientists he had been seeking a second opinion from and vise versa. On the corner of his desk sat a rather out of place bowl of arranged fruit, the organic mater serving as a safe test subject for his freeze ray (though all he had managed to do thus far was purée two bananas, an orange and several kiwi with the ionized beam). Above the desk on a large bulletin board hung all three of his diplomas including his undergraduate, graduate and masters degrees. About them were a handful of various metals, awards and honors he had received as well as a spattering of newspaper clippings and articles from various sources including two from the PNAS and one from the New York Times.

His gaze stalled finally as it passed over a rather well weathered scrap of newsprint that had been the first he had ever stuck to this makeshift wall. The title read 'Local Wiz-kid Mapping Memories and Making History' in fine bold print with a large picture set just below the headline. Cornelius himself stood prominently in the photo, all of 12 years old and beaming next to his first and most memorable invention to date. His unruly blond hair was hidden beneath a strange helmet like device as he stood evidently explaining the even stranger little box about his neck and the shimmering screen at his side. Behind him in the photograph one could just make out the forms of Bud and Lucille as they beamed down at the boy that would one day become there only son. All around him stood students and teachers all trying to catch a glimpse of the miraculous, revolutionary device.

Cornelius chewed his lower lip as he contemplated the little image. More specifically, as he contemplated the barely visible little pigtailed girl that looked out from the very corner of the picture, a small amphibian clutched in her arms as she watched the young inventor explain his strange new device.

Franny…

…_Tell you how, how you make  
Make me feel, what's the phrase…  
_

It was funny on some level; out of all the corny, clichéd, over used romantic lines, he was the one person on this planet, hell, if not the history of the human race that could say he had truly loved the dark haired girl before ever having met her, and not merely in any metaphoric or poetic sense. Thanks to a glitch in the space-time continuum (and a rather impulsive, energetic son-to-be), Cornelius had had a chance to travel through the restrictions of time, to see the potential that was his future and to meet the woman that would one day become his 'everything'. Of course at age twelve, the romantic component that comprised his potential life was the farthest thing from his mind; and still, even at twelve there had been something about the strange dark hair woman, the way she smiled, the way her eyes laughed as though at some silent joke only she could hear…it made him feel…different.

_Like a fool,  
Kind of sick  
Special need,  
Anyways…_

Seven years had past since his adventure through the fourth dimension of time and ever since he had walked a rather fine line. How do you go on with your life when you know the end but not the means? It was as though he had been instructed to a destination while being presented with a map devoid of direction. How did you know when you were doing it right? How did you know when you were getting it wrong? What if you were second guessing yourself? What if you didn't pay close enough attention? It was a mental paradox of sorts and thus far he had been very, _very_ careful to step lightly, watching each move and making the best of what he could, when he could. To his surprise and silent delight almost everything seemed to be playing along just wonderfully, all the pieces falling together in a flawless path…everything except one rather crucial piece.

Franny

With an irritated hiss the inventor spun about in his chair to avoid looking at the little yellowed image. It just wasn't fair. He had done all the calculations, he had thought all his decisions through…what else was he supposed to do? It's not as though he hadn't spoken with the girl when they were younger, but they were never more then casual encounters and the like. Besides it had never felt right. He always assumed, like everything else in his life, it would happen when it was supposed to happen, no need to push the point and risk upsetting the delicate balance of the space time continuum. And with collage calling and a scholarship all but assured, he figured he had other more urgent things to attend to. Besides he had all the time in the world…right?

Two years in undergrad, Two and a half years in grad school (the extra six months dedicated to an unneeded but much sought after internship with CERN and a chance to work with the Large Hadron Collider in its first months of operation), and three doctoral programs completed in record time, Cornelius had finished off his advanced academic career within six short years and with countless job offers, scholastic opportunities, and pending grants at that. Nineteen years old, not even old enough to drink (well, legally at any rate) and he was practically living the life of someone three or four times his age. In the grand scheme of things he knew it was only a few short years, but it felt as though a lifetime had passed when he finally returned to his home town and his 'old' life.

The thing was, it hadn't even been the 'going away' that created all the problems, but rather what he had come home to that had thrown his whole understanding of his future into disarray. When he had left, Franny had been little more then a bouncing ball of youthful pigtailed energy, bright playful smile hidden temporarily behind a wiry line of braces. Six years later and that bright eyed, awkward little duckling was now a graceful, flawless swan.

His first glance at this new 'swan' came while leaving the public library a few short months ago, cradling a large stack of research volumes pressed against his chest. He had just finished depleting the library rather scanty collection on the mathematics of quantum field theory and was just pushing his way out the front door when a gaggle of giggling girls across the street caught his eye. And there she was…simple as anything. He had all but tripped over himself when he had caught site of her, surrounded by the pack of teen girls, shopping bags all in hand.

She was…well she was perfect, that's all there was to it. In place of pigtails she now wore her hair in a sleek shoulder length ponytail, her family's signature cowlick curl falling lightly over her forehead. No more freckles and no more braces, only pail skin and perfect white smile. Her features had lost their soft childish line and for a heartbeat he had been sure he was looking at the woman he had met that day all those years ago in the house that would one day be his home.

Hell, he _felt_ like he did that day. Every time he caught sight of her (and in such a small town it was hard not too). His mouth would go dry, his chest ached, and for some reason he though he might burst into flame on the spot. It was embarrassing, exhilarating and an all together inexplicable sensation.

He would catch sight of her out on the street with friends, in the line to the movies with some boy or another, and more then once berried beneath a stack of books at the public library with titles ranging from 'Music Through the Ages' to 'Advanced Genetics for the Inquiring Mind'

Needless to say he did not once approach her. Rather he would make quite the spectacle of himself trying to stay out of site; diving behind lampposts and mailboxes, slinking behind foliage or darting down adjacent isle of books. There he would hide, clammy hands pulling nervously on his sleeves, straightening his glasses, or simply holding his breath. In his head he would compose a plethora of possible conversation openers, each more pathetic then the last. What in gods name was he expected to say. 'Hi, I know your beautiful, popular, and far out of my league, but trust me when I say I've been to the future and we really are happy together…'

Groaning he sunk down farther into the chair, almost wishing he could just sink into oblivion. What a mess he had made of the whole affair. If only he had said something years ago when he had the chance, when he had had the courage and the where for all too just ask her out. And, to top it all off the past two weeks had only seen the problem escalate from bad to worse.

It had been Bud's idea and, at the time, it had seemed like such the perfect solution. Take some time off, finish up his research grant and proposal on the freeze ray and hey, while home why not through in a resume at some of the local high schools as a substitute in an attempt to pay off some of his remaining student loans. Within a week he had gotten the call in from Joyce Williams High claming that one of the faculty members had indeed fallen ill and they would be in need of a substitute science instructor for the next week or two. Cornelius had, of course jumped at the opportunity. Had he but known what he was getting himself into he probably would have thought twice of the whole affair.

The moment he walked into the school he knew there was going to be trouble. The strange side long glances, the snickering whispered comments, the hushed quiet that followed him wherever he went. By now Cornelius was quite used to being treated differently by those around him. He often found they were more tentative, reacting to his mixture of age and scholastic achievement in numerous strange, all be it subtle ways. Of coarse most of the people he associated with were adults and to be sure there was nothing subtle about the looks and reactions he got from those closer to him in age.  
It didn't matter how many degrees he had, the students still saw him as little more then a glorified hall monitor.

The classroom became a battle field and Cornelius found himself the very first day having to struggle to be heard over students who found it much more becoming to spend there first period talking about hair styles, fashion news, and celebrity blunders then the four veritable states of matter and the interactive properties of plasma. By the time the bell rang and his first period class was dismissed Cornelius was already making plans to speak with the administrative staff and explain how this was a huge mistake on his part.

Homeroom came next.

His homeroom charge was only just beginning to file into the room when a very familiar, very warm laugh sent his heart into his throat and his stomach into his shoes. Cornelius glanced up from his desk in time to see non other then Franny Framagucci waltz into the classroom, a team of five other girls at her side, all giggling and bantering right along with her. The pack made there way immediately to the back corner of the room, their conversation never seeming to miss a beat.

Cornelius had felt light headed. It took every ounce of mental composure to fight the urge to duck under the desk. It was bad enough that he risk running into her on the streets…now this? Thinking fast he began digging through the contents of the desk, finding a stack of unassigned paperwork and barring himself in it as though it were the most fascinating thing he had ever laid eyes on (even if he had been reading it upside down). The second bell rang, the announcements came on. The inventor heard none of it. Rather he spent the time trying to remember how to properly breathe. By the time the announcements ended his heart beat had once again dropped to a respectable, though by no means regular flutter. Feigning a casual demeanor as best he could Cornelius risked a quick glance over the corner of the incomplete work sheets.

She was staring straight at him.

For the first time since he had returned home Cornelius looked directly into those warm chocolate colored eyes. His pulsed had raced, his stomach knotted and he could not seem for the life of him to remember how to breathe.

An eternity passed, then another, and still all he could see were those same, perfect, rich brown eyes…

The bell finally rang, breaking the spell. Cornelius had been the first from the room, almost sprinting down the hallways, around the corner, and into the administrative offices. What ensued was a lengthy twenty minuet argument in which he pleaded and begged with the principle to seek out another substitute, he had had enough.  
But the administration wouldn't have it. He had already signed his contract and regardless there was no one to fill his shoes. He would just have to grin and bear it…all of it, and pray that he could avoid those eyes for the eight horrifying and insufferable minuets they were in his room.

…and avoid them he did, and quite well to his credit. Day after day he had found a little bit of this or that to occupy his attention each homeroom period, busying himself correcting this assignment or writing that grade review while strategically avoiding scanning the room or otherwise interacting with any and all the student body that trudged through his homeroom each school morning.

His luck was not to last.

It was Friday and the second bell had only just rung. Out of the corner of his eye Cornelius watched as the homeroom stragglers filed in. For his part Cornelius was, as he did every morning, almost completely focused on correcting the stack of homework assignments collected the previous day, designating only a quarter of his attention to the chattering student body before him. He had struck an almost unspoken agreement with the twenty or so students that made up his eight minuets of daily homeroom hell. As long as they stayed quiet, he let them do just about anything they damn well please (in the realm of common academic decency of coarse), and for the most part they were more then willing to comply. As far as he was concerned, anything that kept his attention focused and well away from those back six chairs and the occasional glance he received from one student in particular was fine by him.

"You should ask _Dr._ Robinson…" a squeaky, somewhat pretentious sounding voice proclaimed a bit too loudly, effectively breaking into his calculations and corrections. The honey sweet, sand paper voice seemed to make a point of placing a great deal of unneeded emphasis on his respective title. "He like, totally knows everything…"  
Cornelius had to make a mental effort not to shutter at the sound of that all too familiar tone. Betty Thomson had to be the most popular, 'adorable', and all around irritating little snob he had ever had the misfortune to teach. She was blond, tall, slightly exotic, and had (in his humble opinion) an I.Q that might on its best day rival any common lab rat…after a lobotomy. She was always there with a snide remark and a barley veiled reminder that he was still little more then a teen himself, despite his acclaimed status.  
"Is there something you need Miss. Thomson…" He had asked in a calm monotone, not bothering to even look up from the stack of papers that sat in front of him. He severely hoped the answer was no.  
There was a short half snort, half exasperated sigh only a girl like Betty could properly execute before; "ah, no…duh…"  
Irritated, Cornelius finally tore his attention from his papers, prepared to favor the obnoxious blond with his best authoritative cold stare…and had fond himself staring instead into a beautiful pair of intoxicating chocolate brown eyes.

Franny smiled sheepishly back at him in an almost apologetic manner as Betty rolled her own contact colored eyes in impatience. "Franny said she been having trouble with some science project and stuff, so I told her she should like, totally ask you for help and stuff."  
"I…um…" Cornelius had floundered wildly, but for the life of him he could not compose one proper thought, not a single cohesive sentence. He watched as Franny bit her lip, looking (if possible) even more apologetic then before. "I know you must have a lot on you're plate right not Mister…er, Doctor Robinson." She corrected herself with a small smile. "But I could really use some help with this project, and with Mr. Birmingham being out ill."

Immediately Cornelius had seen his out and he took it. "Well that just it Miss. Framagucci, I'm not sure it would be academically appropriate for me to offer assistance on an assignment created by another teacher. He might see my help as a form of undermining his own…"  
He trailed off slowly as he had watched her face fall and with it he felt his own heart sink. "…but I suppose I could look over what research you have done and offer what advice I may, if you were to stop by my place during tutoring hours on Saturday…"

The words were out of his mouth before he had even time to concoct the sentence. Even as he heard them on his lips felt his stomach lurch in horror. What the hell had he just said?  
From behind Fran, three girls, lead inevitably by Betty, offered a quite but all too suggestive whoop that had the blond inventor turning pink at the ears. Of coarse, the fact that he offered privet tutoring on weekends was nothing new, and many of both the most inclined and least successful students had indeed taken advantage of the offer (the later usually under a great deal of parental coercion). Still in this context he could not help but feel the three were not all that far off…

Franny was a bit more subtle in her embarrassment, her face flushing in a rather flattering manner as she turned and offer the three a very sour look. Before anything else could be said however there came the sharp unmistakable ring marking the end of the homeroom session. As the rooms occupants trudged towards the door some laughing, other simply conversing, thinking, reading, or prying that there next period instructor would forget that they had a paper due that day; Franny had turned back to him with a grateful smile and a quick nod. "Sounds good, 5:30 then?"  
Before he could protest, or better still stammer out a viable excuse she was gone. Cornelius had been left to stair helplessly at the desk, his body and mind completely numb. Even as his next class began to push passed, each taking there respective seats there was only one thought that rolled through his mind, seven words that seemed to engulf and overtake every ounce of his being.

_'Cornelius, what the hell have you done?'_

6:55

The young inventor tore his eyes from the clock, tipping his head back so that he might stare straight up and out passed the high domed glass ceiling of his study, past the few trees that clustered in to his peripheral vision and out into the slowly creeping dusk that was only just beginning to color the sky a more substantial blue.  
She was late…she probably wasn't coming.

He didn't know how to feel about that. On the one hand he knew he should be grateful, having dodged such a looming built without a single serious physiological scar to show for it, but on the other…on the other he had this sinking feeling that something was supposed to happen, that indeed time was weighing heavily on these few short hours as though the rest of his life hinged critically on whatever events might play out on this very hypothetical stage.

It didn't matter, he told himself in a non to convincing manner. She probably didn't even need the help, and had agreed to come simply to save him the embarrassment of that near break down he had had in the classroom. She was probably just sitting at home having completely forgotten, or perhaps giggling away on the phone with that brat Betty Thomson over the perfect prank. He very much did not like the later scenario.

If only he knew what to do, if only he knew where to go from here. If only Wilbur were here! It was true the boy was technically his son, born to a woman he had yet to take on a single date, but whenever Wilbur popped in for one of his brief 'correctional visits' as he liked to call them, everything seemed to move along so smoothing. Wilbur just made everything work, even when they were in trouble, things always seemed to be moving, working, making sense. If Wilbur was here he would know what to do, if Wilbur were here he would know what should be said, how to act, everything.

But Wilbur wasn't here.

What if Wilbur was never here?

What if, through some small mistake Cornelius had already botched up in his future relationship with the young, raven haired beauty, that the two of them had never ended up together, and Wilbur, by proxy, would have never been born? What if things were already irreconcilably askew? What if there was no Wilbur to come back and warn him, what if…

The distant chime of the front door broke through his ever mounting list of hypothetical horrors, bringing him momentarily back to his senses. For a brief second his heart jumped into his throat before he recalled his mothers pending delivery he had sworn to sign for. Cornelius moaned, dreading even that little human interaction. The front door rang once more and he cursed begrudgingly as he pulled himself to his feet, pushing his erratic blond bangs from his face and shuffling towards the door. "I'm coming I'm coming…" he barked as the bell rang a third time, long wiry legs taking the steps from the lab two at a time. Around the corner, down the foyer and with a melancholic grown Cornelius through upon the front door…


	2. Chapter 2

**Stop the World**

Part II

_  
With my freeze ray I will stop the pain.  
It's not a death ray or an ice-beam that's all Johnny Snow,  
I just think you need time to know…_

"Oh good your home!"

Franny Framagucci stood on the stoop of the Robinsons front door, backpack in hand, beaming up at the famous inventor as sweetly as one might imagine.

Cornelius didn't reply…he had temporarily forgotten how to breathe.

If Franny noticed anything she made little enough of it, spinning about in one smooth dance-like motion to wave back at the road and the yellow truck parked there. The vehicle now idling at the end of the drive would have been hard to miss, even speeding by on a packed highway. An outdated, decrepit Toyota from the look of it, the car had been equipped with a rather gaudy looking pop-culture space ship welded to the roof; the logo '_Pizza Planet'_ emblazoned upon it in proud red letters.

"It's alright Art!" Franny called with a wave at the waiting truck. "He's here! I'll give you a call when I need to be picked up!" Somewhere, far in the back of his consciousness, Cornelius was aware of the truck, aware of the wiry, acne spackled occupant, and even aware of his rather acidic look he threw the nineteen year old 'doctor' before throwing the tricked-out vehicle into gear and pulling back onto the unoccupied street. Yes, Cornelius was aware, but only barely…

"Oh don't mind him…" Fran had spun back in another graceful turn to face the still dumbfounded inventor. "And I'm _really_ sorry I'm late, I hope it's alright…you see, I had to wait till Art was off work to catch a ride and of coarse he just had to be difficult and…"

Cornelius didn't hear a word…in fact he was sure he was going to pass out. She was here, Franny was here…what was he going to do, what was he going to say; and why the hell had he opened his mouth in the first place?!

It was a long awkward moment before he realized that those unbearably rich brown eyes were fixed on him, a worried curiosity creasing her brow. Suddenly aware that it was in fact his turn to speak he tried to open his mouth but to his dismay only a befuddled mumbling spilled past his lips. He was doomed.

"You're forehead…" the girl repeated, pointing to her own head as though to demonstrate. "Did you hurt yourself?"

His brain finally caught up with her words as he remembered his bruised temple. "y-yha" he bit out with a embarrassed laugh, his voice quite a few decibels above where it ought to be. Quickly he cleared his throat and tried again. "I ah, I just had a little accident in the lab this morning, nothing big." Again he tried a nervous laugh as she smiled sympathetically.

There followed a very long, very uncomfortable pause.

"So…" She began, clasping her hands together, clearly trying to fill the silence.

"So…" he repeated, feeling as though he was drowning in the quiet.

"May…I come in…" she ventured, gesturing to him, the door, and the house that lay beyond.

'_NO_'. His brain screamed, and his nerves whole heartedly backed it up on this. '_Tell her your sick, tell her your mom is sick, tell her your goldfish is sick, anything! But don't let her_…'

"Oh….um, yes" he managed in a meek, apologetic manner.

_'you're doomed…_'

Franny smiled her perfect pretty smile as he stepped aside, holding the door as much to keep himself upright as out of any real gesture of courtesy. Fearing the silence would descend upon them once more he wracked his brain for a conversation started.

"Y-you're, um, your brother I presume?" He asked pointing to the door as he made to close it. Of course, he had '_presumed_' nothing he didn't already know, but that was neither here nor there he decided. Knowing the future sometimes meant having to take a step back or two, to keep up appearances if nothing else.

"Yha," Fran replied, her lips twisting into an apologetic grin of her own as she shrugged. "Art is the oldest. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy, but ever since he got that stupid delivery job with Pizza Planet, he's gotten even more overbearing and protective then he used to be. I swear, he's such a raging dork sometimes." She shook her head with a stilted chuckle. "You know, some times I worry he takes those comic books of his way to seriously."

Despite his nerves, Cornelius couldn't help his own tepid grin as the image of his future brother-in-law danced before his minds eye.

"You have no idea…"

"Beg your pardon?"

"O-oh, um nothing…" Cornelius stammered as he gestured for her to follow him. They walked in silence down the main foyer and into the left wing corridor that lead to the lab. Again Cornelius was feeling the full weight of those perfect brown eyes and was finding it difficult to keep his balance. '_Keep her talking!_' his mind screamed, '_when she talking she's_ _not just staring at you like the idiot you are_…'

Quickly, Cornelius searched his fogged over brain for any semblance of an idea.

"This, um…this project of yours" he began, not daring to look at her as they began the long climb up to his laboratory in the back of the house. "I'm assuming it's the earth science project Mr. Birmingham assigned just before he left?" He could think of no other…

"Well…not exactly…"

Cornelius could feel his nerves begin to twitch. "I wasn't aware he assigned any other projects…" he risked a quick look over at the petite teen. She was staring at the floor, her face slightly flushed as she fidgeted with the strap of her bag.

"He didn't…"

He felt his heart sink sickeningly into his stomach. So he _had_ been right, she really hadn't needed help and was just here because of his pitiful little display in the classroom. And now she had come all this way just to try and spare him the embarrassment. Quickly he tried to console himself with the thought that at least his second suspicion had not held merit, but the idea provided little comfort. "Oh…" he stammered, trying desperately to keep his disappointment from his face. He needed to be casual; he didn't want to look like this had really meant anything. It didn't… right? Even if she did need help, it wasn't like a date or anything just a study session…a silly little study session.

Inadvertently he had stopped walking, and she had done the same, the toe of her show twisting timidly into the step as she chewed her lower lip. "Yha…I'm sorry Dr. Robinson, it's just, I really, _really_ need help and I didn't think you would listen to me if I had explained it to you at school…so I kind of, you know…lied."

Immediately the inventers' attitude perked up, as did his curiosity. "Oh...?" he exclaimed once more, this time the sound a question rather then a stammered façade for his embarrassment. Franny's face began to turn yet another shade of pink, a color he found rather flattering on her soft white features. Without another word she began fumbling through her bag in search of something and when her hands reemerged she clutched in them a squat, green, wriggling…

"ah…you're musical frogs." Cornelius exclaimed his curiosity resolving into a light chuckle of delight and relief. The girls' eyes widened in surprise at his recognition and then almost instantly darkened at his reaction. "It's not a joke" she snapped, shaking the frog in front of his face as though for emphasis. "They really are musically incline, every one of them!" Cornelius through up his arms in defense, taking a few steps backwards. "I don't doubt you," he said quickly, still smiling his own surprise and delight. "It's just…I thought you had given up on your musical amphibian based dreams, that's all."

Fran looked horrified at the very thought. "Of coarse not!" She snapped, pulling the rather bewildered looking frog back to her chest and clutching it affectionately. "It's just…no one ever believes me, and I was so tied of being laughed at and…well, and ridiculed…I just don't talk about it any more." Cornelius nodded, his smile fading slightly. "I see…" he managed, though in all honesty he couldn't. No matter which way he examined it, Cornelius was finding it very hard to imagine anyone ever laughing or ridiculing this perfect little creature. Franny was smart, ambitious, unmistakably beautiful…and here she stood, normally bright mirthful eyes cast down in shame or embarrassment, he could not tell which.

He did not like this look on her, this expression that overtook the young girls face. It wasn't so much her sad, forlorn air that truly bothered him, though that alone would have been enough. She looked suddenly tired, defeated, even broken in some sense. When she spoke again she was oh so quiet, her voice low and week as though the words were becoming hard for ever her to believe. "I'm sorry Dr. Robinson…I know this doesn't seem all that important, or even productive…but, it's just, I've always felt that music, in many ways, is like a universal constant. Not just consciously and culturally, but naturally…even ethereally. You know, string theory and all." She paused as she tried an unsuccessful smile "I just know that if I am successful in this, it would not only be a break through in genetics, but it would prove in some small way that music as a transcendent means of communication is a plausible hypothesis, that there is a universal form of communication more potent then language or even symbols and iconography. But I don't know…"

They stood silently for a moment, he regarding her, she with her face cast down, looking somehow even smaller then her normally petit stature should allow.

"Fran…" he paused, not quite sure where it was he was going with this, but knowing he had to say something. She looked so lost, so hopeless…it was heart-wrenching. Clearing his throat he tried again. "Franny, let me tell you something. It's very easy to push forward with a project, a theory, an idea…what have you; that people readily understand and believe in. That kind of scientific advancement happens everyday. But things found easily rarely ever hold the merit of those things found against all odds. Galileo, Newton, Einstein, hell even Max Planck; there all names we remember not because they discovered, pursued, and contemplated something easy, but because they pushed beyond what was perceived as the limits of scientific understanding into realms at first only they could see. You'll get there, just give it time, and don't be afraid to keep moving forward."

She was staring at him…oh god she was staring at him now! Cornelius felt something akin to a bolt of electricity rip through his body. Swallowing hard he found himself leaning hard against the wall of the stairwell, no longer trusting his own legs. Trying desperately to shrug the effect off he averted his eyes as he forced the words out as casually as he could.

"So…um, how can I help…"

To his great relief she looked down, averting her own eyes to stare at the small green amphibian in her arms, stroking its head with one thumb as its half lidded eyes stared almost blankly up at the blond inventor. "you know… you're the only person who had ever said anything encouraging about my ideas…" she stifled a rather shy giggle, the mere hint of her usually bright enchanting smile returning to her lips. "anyway, Dr. Robinson, I just thought…you know, I've hit a bit of an impasse with the research and seeing how you know all this stuff about…well seemingly everything, I thought maybe you might be able to…you know, point me in the right direction." With that she looked up at him, a hopeful almost pleading expression etched on her fair features.

For the love of Einstein's ghost, why was it that simply everything about this creature seemed contrived just to bring him to the brink of sanity! He tried a nervous laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck "you…um, you don't need to keep calling me Dr. Robinson…" he ventured "this isn't a class, Cornelius will do just fine here…" Still trying to play it cool he very casually hid his sweating palms deep in the pockets of his lab coat as he clear his throat and shrugged "And what can I say, I live for the scientifically inexplicable...how could I say no."

Her face lit up in an instant and with it Cornelius could feel his heart and his face do the same. Before he could do anything however he felt a long pair of slender arms wrap about his chest in an energetic and impromptu hug. He nearly lost it…

"oh, Cornelius! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…" Franny chanted, ignoring the somewhat irate croaking of the little amphibian she still clutched in one hand. Cornelius, of course, was to busy once again coxing himself through the simple act of breathing to ever venture a reply. In another instant she released him, but not before grabbing the inventor by one clammy, shaking hand and dragging him excitedly up the remainder of the stairway to the lab door.

She was talking again, excitedly and at great rambling length, but Cornelius was no longer listening. He was too busy staring down at her perfect hand as it fit into his own large, callused digits. Through the fog and the haze of his train of thought he could not help but marvel at this little perfect hand, its little perfect fingers twined in there little perfect way…fitting ever so perfectly with his. He didn't know if it was a sign or simply his cluttered mind jumping at straws but, it seemed a rather encouraging image to the overwhelmed inventor. The first real encouraging thought on the topic he had had to date. Straws or no, it was a thought he rather enjoyed.

Cornelius didn't really notice when the great doors to the lab were thrown open and the pair of them dashed inside, Franny leading the front. He didn't really notice when they stopped, or even when exactly it was that the girl had stopped talking. It wasn't until her thin, nimble fingers released his hand that any semblance of reality overtook him at all. Blinking his surprise Cornelius turned sheepishly back to his guest, his hand rubbing at his neck once more as a means to fill the nervous, awkward silence. "Yes…well, here we are…" he announced meekly "and um…so"

The girl wasn't even listening. She simply stood, slack jawed, as she gazed up and about at the entirety of the room…

"Wow!" The finally managed, craning her neck as she spun around and around trying to get a look at just about everything she could. It took the inventor a moment to realize what it was that had so captivated his guest, but once he did Cornelius smile his own nervous shy smile as he examined the tow of his rather scuffed up work shoes. Sometimes he forgot how impressive the lab could be. After all, he had worn just about an identical look of wonder the first time he had set eyes on it, filled as it had been countless inventions he had yet to even conceive. For now the space was only half full, and still lacked the clean crisp line its future form would take. Where one day smooth polished versions of his inventions yet to come might stand now loomed large, rather clumsy looking mechanical monsters, there innards all open and strewn about the floor. Papers were scattered hither and yon with countless diagrams taped to countless surfaces. To the far side of the room, just visible between the fragmented parts of what he hoped would be a particle isolation chamber was his desk, the large drafting table looking rather unimpressive next to the numerous mechanical behemoths that flanked it.

"You made all this…" Franny finally ventured breathlessly, wide eyes coming back to fix on Cornelius. The lanky teen could feel his face flush as he tried to shrug off her clear admiration. "In my spare time, yha…I tend to tinker."

"These are incredible!" She continued gesturing about her as though for emphasis before her gaze lighted on a strange, lopsided device that was currently humming away to itself. It stood no more then three feet tall and displayed a multitude of different colored lights on its face- each one flickering on and off and on again in a wide assortment of patterns. "Mind if I ask what this is?" She asked, risking a hesitant glance back at the older boy before continuing her study of the strange little machine. "Not at all…though I fear its not all that exciting" he admitted, tucking his hands in his lab pocket as he rocked nervously on the balls of his feet beside her. "It's kind of a homemade miniature particle detector if you will." Franny nodded her amazement before her eyes settled on another device a few paces behind the first. "And this…" She pointed to a foot long cylinder hooked up to a gas tank of some kind. He barely had time to identify it as his attempt to study carbon nano-tubing construction and application when she was off again hovering over another invention.

For the next five minuets Cornelius was kept quite busy chasing behind the emphatic girl as she pointed and questioned each device she came to. Finally she stopped in front of what looked like a comically large ray gun, the barrel spanning almost ten feet in length as it sat atop a softly humming power converter the size of a mini-van. "How about this one?" she asked tipping her head as she examined the control panel at its side. "Well …" Cornelius mumbled, feeling a bit winded after the rapid-fire tour. "it's nothing yet, but its supposed to be a freeze-ray, if I ever get the ion beam to stabilize long enough."

"No way!" Franny gawked, looking over the device with a new found admiration. "That's so cool! No pun intended of course, oh, but you have to tell me how it works"

"Well…" Cornelius rubbed the back of his neck nervously, unsure how much he should explain, and how much she really did care to hear. Was she just being polite…was she actually interested? "It's not all that straight forward…I mean it is, but there is an additional element when dealing with living matter." He glanced down to her nervously, in an attempt to try and gage her interest. To his surprise he found that rather then the absent minded nodding most people were prone to favor him with, she was staring at him with furrowed brow, weight shifted fully to her left hip. "How do you mean?"

He bit the inside of his lip, flustered despite himself. "I…ah…" Brown eyes were fixed on him intently and he suddenly felt quite small under that inquisitive gave. _Get a hold of yourself_ his mind screamed; _if you could explain it to the board of trustees at Inventa co. you can most certainly explain it to one individual_. Swallowing hard Cornelius tried a timid smile. Might as well jump in full force and hope he didn't brand himself a 'raging dork' as she had so eloquently described it. "the…uh…the thing is in order to effectively 'freeze' something in a state of preservation you need to bring the molecular activity of the object to a complete stop. You see, temperature is gauged by the amount of motion attributed to a molecule, so if you were to stop all motion of the atom you would effectively bring the subject to absolute zero, you know? Of coarse you know, your in the honors science program, so you know what absolute zero is and you don't really need it explained by me…"

He cut himself off with a nervous laugh as the color began to build in his face. Trying to cover up his embarrassment he pushed forward. "b-but the thing is when bring any living subject to a state of absolute zero, you almost always risk disrupting vital metabolic systems in the process, so now I just need to find a way to bring a given body to a state of absolute zero without compromising function and structural integrity of the organism on a cellular level…you know?" He trailed off, looking to the raven haired girl sheepishly for some sign that she had not just labeled him an irrefutable and inexcusable geek.

"Wow…" Franny murmured, biting her lip as she took all that in. "I'm not sure I caught all of that..." she confessed with a sheepish grin of her own "but it sounds like quite a dilemma. Have you been able to pin point at which stage of the freezing process the damage occurs. You know, is it in the process of freezing or is it in bringing the thing out of the state of absolute zero?"

Cornelius felt his jaw go slack as he simply stared at her dumbstruck. Not only has she followed his rambling line of logic…she had _understood_ it. Franny on the other hand had started to turn colors herself, her face becoming lightly flushed as she began fidgeting with her hands. "I'm sorry, I know it's a stupid question…"

"No, no, not at all" Cornelius stammered out, realizing how she had misinterpreted his silence. "Its just…most people seem to get a little lost when I start rambling and…" Fran's face, which had only moments ago been merely touched with pink now began to redden quite substantially. "well…as you said I am in the honors program."

They both shared a nervous laugh before they fell into an awkward silence; both teens suddenly finding anything but the other to look at.

"So…"Fran ventured,

"so…" Cornelius repeated, pressing her to continue.

"So have you tried firing it up since you reworked whatever it was you were 'fidgeting with'" as she spoke the last words she lifted her own hands, emphasizing the last words with a visual parenthesis. Again he offered her a timid smile "well, no…I mean I have finished recalibrating the energy impute to the beam, that should make the timing of the ion output a bit less erratic but…"

"well lets try it out!" Fran interrupted in an eager tone, pulling playful at the sleeve of his white lab coat. He felt an electric shock run through his body at the place where her hand met his wrist, but the pleasant tingling was almost instantly set aside as his brain caught up with her words. "I don't know…" He murmured pulling his hand back. What if it didn't work…how foolish would he look then? What if it malfunctions…or spat back parts like it had that morning…

"Come on…" She all but cooed, evidently not willing to be so easily swayed. "I'm sure it will work just fine…besides I want to be the first to say I saw the great Cornelius Robinsons freeze ray in action."  
Cornelius felt the flush returning to his face as she once again dragged him forward towards his own would be invention. "I-I'm not really sure it will work…" To his surprise she stopped pulling at him, spinning around to give him her best imitation of a pleading puppy she could muster, eyes going wide as her lower lip jetted out slightly. "Please…" she added in an almost song like quality. "pretty please with sugar, sprinkles, and one of the expensive cherries on top…"

Shaking his head Cornelius rolled his eyes in a dramatic fashion, more to hide his own flustered feelings then any really sense of exasperation. At least now he knew from whom Wilber had mastered such a look from. "Alright, alright…but first…" he took a few quick steps back to his desk, grabbing and tossing his lab goggles in her direction. "Put these on, just incase."

Despite his somewhat ill aimed through Franny managed to catch the protective goggles, smiling from ear to ear like a child. Cornelius knew that look, he loved that look. It was the same look she had given him all those years ago in the future when Bud had first thrown open the music room doors and she had tipped her head back to offer them an enthusiastic, welcoming grin.

He waited till she had the goggles on and adjusted before turning to his freeze ray, thumbing on the correct sequence of switched and listening for the duel turbines to begin there pitiful moan. Selecting another apple from the little basket he had brought up for just such a purpose, he placed the unsuspecting fruit dead center in the predetermined bulls eye on the table before scampering back to stand next to the control panel on the right hand side of the device. He smiled despite himself as he began to punch in a few more commands. He couldn't help it really; he always felt such a wonderful rush of adrenalin whenever he took his inventions out for a test drive. Besides, he had a really good feeling about this time.

"Ready!" he called over the roar of the turbines. Holding her hands over her ears Franny pulled one hand away to give him a quick thumbs-up. Smiling his own crocked grin Cornelius pressed the final initiation button.

_That I'm the guy to make it real,  
The feelings you don't dare to feel.  
I'll bend the world to my will,  
And we'll make time stand still._

The first thing he was truly aware off was the low steady wurr of the large safety fans he had installed years ago to vent the dome clean of smoke should any of his inventions go up in flames. Flames…oh no! The Freeze ray! Instantly he felt a wash of guilt and embarrassment flood over him. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He knew he should have tested the turbines once more! Now he had made a complete ass out of himself and Franny would never talk to him again. He might as well just curl up in a corner somewhere and die... or at the very least dissipate into nothing where he now lay.

Actually, the prospect of just lying there was a rather appealing one now that he was aware of it. He was warm, quite comfortably so; and there was something sweet and soft at his lips.  
Had he died?

The thought rolled through his mind in an almost leisurely means and to his surprise the prospect did not really bother him all that much. If this was what lied beyond the world of the living…well, that was just fine with him.

Again came the sweet soft breath on his lips and he thrilled silently, allowing it to fill his being before… "OUCH!"

Coughing and spluttering Cornelius sat bolt upright. Franny, who had been leaning over him, both hands folded one over the other on the inventors' chest leapt back with a cry of her own, Heimlich maneuver abruptly forgotten. "Geez Fran…" he moaned between coughing spurts, rubbing at his bruised chest. Unable to see a thing he quickly removing his glasses to wiped dust from the lenses with the inner clean corner of his lab coat. "I think you just broke a rib." No sooner had they returned to his nose then he felt a set of long slender arms wrapping firmly about his neck, inciting another cry of surprise from the startled boy. "Oh Cornelius, Thank Goodness your all right." Frannys' voice was rushed, tinged with panic and fear. To say that he was taken aback by her sudden display of affection would be a poor understatement indeed.

"I-I…ah…" He felt his face burn a new as he tried to compose his thoughts. What was she…what had he…Gingerly he made a feeble attempts to untangle himself from her grip, with little successes. "I'm sorry," she sobbed repeatedly, still clinging fervently to his neck. "I'm so so so so so so sorry…"

"It's alright Fran…really." He had finally managed to loosen her grip on his neck holding her out at arms lengths in order to get a good look at her. He felt his breath hitch in his throat…

Her usually flawless pail features were blacked by smoke, a perfectly even coating over both her skin and cloths. The only section seemingly spared were the perfect soot free circles about her eyes that denoted where the goggles had been. Black well kept hair now stuck out at all directions with large chunks falling free to wrap about her face. It might have been quite the comical sight at any other time, save fore one important note…She had been crying. Cornelius felt his heart sink almost on impulse. "Fran…" bright brown eyes rimed in red blinked back at him before disappearing into his shirt collar once more. "Fran, are you alright? Are you hurt or…"

"please, I'm so sorry…" she was rambling over him again, her sobs drowning out his own string of questions. "its just…I shouldn't have pestered you like that and now your lab… and when it exploded,"

"Fran"

"and you…I didn't know what to do, you weren't breathing,"

"Franny"

"so I panicked and…and I'm so, so sorry I…"

"Fran!" it took him quite a bit of effort to pull her out of her long-winded incoherent monologue and get her to focus on him once more. Still gripping her shoulders he held her still, staring at her the way one might when trying to calm and sooth an irrational child. "Fran, are you hurt?" He asked point blank.

She shook her head no.

Almost instantly Cornelius' face softened, his lips tipping into a lopsided smile and his grip loosened. "Then it's alright."

"B-but your lab…"

Cornelius snorted as he released her to gesture out at the rest of the lab. "Please, do you know how many times I've blown out a window or two in this place? It's why I installed the vent system in the first place. In fact…" he took a moment to scan his eyes over the lab itself. "By my standards, that hardly ranks a three on the demolition scale…"

Fran seemed less the convinced. "And you're freeze ray…"

Cornelius glanced back at where the device sat smoldering, did a quick assessment and shrugged. "Looks like we just blew out the main power converter and the ion grid. I can probably have that fixed in a day or so." He turned back to the teary eyed teen and rubbed the back of his neck feeling a bit abashed. "I probably should have triple checked the calibration on the ion beam's auxiliary power feed, I bet that's what did it." He grimaced slightly before adding "for that much feed back I bet the neighbors will be here any minuet with pitchforks complaining I blew out the power for the whole block …again."

"S-so you're not mad?"

The young inventor blinked his confusion. "Of coarse not"

Franny shook her head with a sob. Sitting back she whipped her soot stained face with the back of her hands, succeeding only in smearing much of the dust more unevenly across her features. Cornelius snickered, fumbling a bit dizzily in his own back pocket for a fairly clean work rag and handing it over to the girl. "I'm just glad you're alright." Even under her mask of dust he could not help but note how her face seemed to flush, ever so slightly.

Murmuring her 'thank you' she accepted the little strip of work cloth, proceeding to wipe away what she could of the dark soot. Taking advantage of her temporary distraction he glanced back over to the freeze ray, scrutinizing the damage more closely. Well at least the thing was getting the power it needed, that was something. Maybe all he needed was to reverse the ion polarity and the impute power converter and the problem would simply solve itself.

_That's the plan, rule the world  
You and me, anyday…_

The smoke was beginning to clear, leaving behind a rather bitter smell of burned electronics in its wake. Finally with a low clunk the large industrial safety fan overhead switched off and to the inventors complete astonishment the sound was replaced with a very soft, very muffled…giggle.

"What…?" More surprised then anything else Cornelius turned back to Franny to find that the girl had all but berried her face in the rag, peeking out from behind it as she tried desperately to hide her snickering. "I'm really sorry…" she all but squeaked as she pulled the rag away from her face. "But your hair…with all the smoke…its…it…" her sentence was swallowed by another bout of giggles, leaving the teen genius completely baffled.

_Love your hair  
"What?"_

"What about my hair…"

Hesitantly Cornelius reached up and was relived to find it all intact (for he had had more then his fair share of close calls on that front) and just as unruly as ever. It wasn't until he pulled his hand back that he realized what it was she meant. His palm looked as though he had just stuck it straight into a pile of pure artist charcoal, and based on the shear concentration of it…

"Oh!" He favored the giggling girl with a timid smile. "So what's so funny about black hair…?" she bit her lip, failing to force back her laughter "I'm sorry…but you look like a really young Tom Selleck without the mustache!" She blurted out finally, erupting once more into peals of laughter. Cornelius was now laughing too as he shook his head vigorously, showing the lab floor and everything within a two foot ratios, including the giggling high school student with a farther sprinkling of suet. Franny squealed and laughed as she through up her hands, trying half heartedly to avoid the fresh misting.

_"No, I love the AIR"  
Anyway_

There laughter slowly faded, the suet slowly settled, and the two teens were left, sitting together on the laboratory floor in silence, each simply staring at the other in this new found silence. It was not an awkward silence, not as it had been before, but rather a contented mutual kind of quiet, each teen smiling warmly back at the other.

Still it was a silence that was meant to be broken.

"Ah…listen." Cornelius finally ventured, trying to pick his words carefully. "Its getting rather late and…"

"Oh…" Franny blinked, her expression first one of surprise and then…disappointment? He most certainly hadn't expected that. "I suppose you're right…it's just…well…"

A thought suddenly occurred to the young inventor and with it came a small lopsided smile. He had already made this much of a fool of himself, what more could one stupid suggestion do. "Actually, I was thinking, and this might just be the head injury talking" he added quickly, pointing nervously to his previously bandaged forehead. "But there's this great little diner a few miles from here. If you want we could go grab a bite there and I can look over your work while we eat, you know…sort of like a ...I mean we don't have to or anything but…"

Cornelius found himself cut off quite abruptly and _quite_ effectively as the girl leaned forward, pressing one dainty, soot cover finger to his lips. His heart raced and it took him a good few seconds before he could breathe again. When she spoke she spoke in a very quiet almost mischievous manner, a playful smile pulling at her lips. "You help me with my project…I'll pay for dinner, deal?"

_With my freeze ray…  
_

As she removed her finger from his lips he managed to smile his own little lopsided smile. It was the kind of smile that years later he would always wonder where his son might have picked it up from.

_I will stop… _

"Deal"

**FIN**

* * *

Authors note: there you have it, I hope you enjoyed this 'little' Disney diddle of a story. I've been thinking about some kind of a sequel, perhaps even from Frannys point of view, but have yet to truly develop anything I like. Any thoughts?


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